Port Bruce; Llewdor; Saturday [05/11].

[special_rabbit]

The journey between Daventry and Llewdor was a bit of a long and treacherous one, involving dangerous mountains, deadly deserts, and potentially sea travel, although the geography of this world was generally highly subject to change and up for debate. Which was exactly why Amaya and Irene would be traveling there with portals, as much as Amaya would like to see how Irene might fare in an arduous journey through the wilderness.

But, in the aftermath of the Tournament, Sir Graham had already proven himself to be an asset to the kingdom by settling the dispute with the Bridge Trolls, and it became very clear to Amaya that the money that had been so liberally promised to her was drying up quickly. Funny, that, considering the legend about the Royal Family of Daventry having in its possession a magical never-emptying chest, but Amaya wasn't going to dwell on that for too long. She followed the money, and if the money in Daventry was drying up, then it was time to go back to Fandom.

After a brief stop in her hometown, anyway. So she made the arrangements so that she and Irene could just portal right into the small seaside hamlet of Port Bruce, under the shadow of a lone spire of a mountain with a menacing castle atop it. And while the town was usually rowdy with all its passing pirates and merchants, the land of Llewdor itself was quite quite and pastoral, great field and rocky terrain and old oak forests, the kind of place that, once they were settled in at the inn, had Amaya offering Irene an apologetic sort of smile.

"Not exactly as many good places for sightseeing here as you'll find in London," she admitted, tempering her worry about what Irene might make of the place Amaya grew up in with the reminder that, well, this was probably quite a bit like what Irene would have expected, especially after a week in Daventry.

[[ for the fellow traveler, though can also be open for calls and texts! NFB for distance as well, obvi! ]]

Comments

[begmetwice]

"Are you kidding?" Irene remarked, absolutely sincere as she paused in her general marveling at their surroundings to look over at Amaya. "It's lovely here, Amaya. Reminds me of -- well, all of England isn't London, you know?"

It was a bit like Cornwall, or Brighton. Or, really, it reminded Irene a bit of Wales, but that also could have been the double-L influencing her.

"And maybe we've had enough excitement for a week, anyway," she noted, lifting her brows with some significance on exciting. She, personally, didn't mind a little bit of a shift to the slower and pastoral.

[special_rabbit]

Amaya had to scoff a bit at that. After several weeks of fighting to keep her bridges up, dealing with Daventry trying to stiff her on her shiny gold coins, and the Whisper of it all, she couldn't help feeling that statement on a deep and fundamental level.

"Yeah," she said, "don't get too used to it, I'm sure once the ships come in with the tide, the only way to find a little quiet around there'll be deep in the woods..."

There was a softening, though, when she looked at Irene, and a bit of a sigh,because, as eager as she was to get back to more of their usual routine back at Fandom, she was definitely going to miss Irene pulling out all the stops for the local fashion like that...

[begmetwice]

There was also a little number she hadn't brought out yet, with bell sleeves that practically reached the floor, but that felt a little showy for here. It would be saved for the next time she had occasion to pull out a dress like this for Amaya.

(It did not need to be a trip to Daventry. It could, honestly, just be a trip to one of their bedrooms.)

"But that means pirates, doesn't it?" Irene asked, eyes sparkling with interest. "I've met alarmingly few pirates, in my time."

And yet she had gotten on with the one she'd known in Fandom like a house afire, for some reason. Probably didn't have anything to do with their mutually skewed moral compasses.

[special_rabbit]

"That does mean pirates," Amaya confirmed, with a nod and maybe a faint smirk at the clear enthusiasm there, but she shook her head lightly too. "And there's no doubt you'll meet plenty in that get-up."

It somehow managed to be incredibly fond and also a little warning, all at once.

"Llewdor wasn't a rich kingdom like Daventry is," she explained further, "it's mostly provincial and a lot more rough-and-tumble. They're going to pick you for a pretty easy mark, I'd wager.

"They'd be wrong, of course," she added, a beat and a broader grin later, "but you should probably be aware."

[begmetwice]

"That's the fun part," Irene assured her, her eyes already scanning for pickpockets or anyone who seemed like they were taking a little extra notice, before tracking back to Amaya and ending in a fond little smile of her own. "I always look like an easy mark, on purpose."

No one ever expected a thing out of the little fancy lady! And, even more important, it helped suss out the -- well, types of folks who'd prey upon an easy mark.

"But I appreciate the warning, all the same," she noted, nodding seriously. "I didn't mean to dress as pirate bait."

She'd just wanted to look pretty and up to her own usual standards if she was potentially meeting any, you know, family members or childhood friends of Amaya's, or anything. Maybe she wanted to make a good impression, a little. (Maybe, even, there were nerves hidden under that carefully-constructed appearance!)

[special_rabbit]

The thought had been tickling in the back of Amaya's brain, that her childhood home really wasn't too much of a walk from Port Bruce proper, recalling up their own stroll through a certain part of London, though there was a pretty big difference, between that house and the one they'd find her in Llewdor. In that that house was just a placement, a marker, not the actual thing, while Amaya's...

Would she be able to just walk by and point it out and be all Welp, there it is, let's get back to the pirates now, or would there be an compulsion to go in, to shower her the rooms that shaped who she'd become today? But then that would also come with introducing Irene to her papa...

If, on occasion, it appeared that Amaya had gone a bit green around the edges, well, that's because she was dancing a little too close to that thought for comfort.

"Well, now I'm thinking I hope they do take the bait, regardless!" she remarked. "If only just to see that in acti--"

"Is that--" A voice called out that made Amaya stop in her tracks; she was about to dismiss it, but then it was followed by a tell-tale laugh that left absolutely no doubt in her mind. "Why, it is! It's the blacksmith! And her little friend! What are the odds?"

Closing her eyes for a moment, Amaya wondered if it was too late to try just ducking into an alley until he passed by.

It was definitely too late.

She leaned in toward Irene to whisper, "What do you think? If we just keep walking, maybe he won't notice?"

[begmetwice]

Irene was at a crossroads here. On the one hand -- even if she was in a red dress with a bunch of showy accessories, she had already identified a good three places where someone could hide out (because she'd been looking for would-be hiders, obviously!), and she had lost a tail more times than she could count. She could absolutely lose him. She had every confidence.

On the other, however, she would never get this opportunity again.

"Oh, I love you, but not a chance," Irene murmured -- and look at that consolation prize (?) of those three little words on a day when no forces were compelling anyone to say them -- before turning to greet the bearer of that voice with a bright, delighted, "Oh my goodness -- what luck! And here I was just bemoaning how I hadn't gotten your autograph!"

She had not been bemoaning it out loud, strictly speaking, but who's to say she wasn't thinking about it?

[whisper_can_do_it]

"Irene!" Amaya started to protest, knowing full well that she was the stronger of the two of them, but before she could even clench her teeth or stomp her foot, Irene was turning around and talking to him, and now Amaya was considering a new plan of just disappearing all on her own (the ocean wasn't so far anymore again that she couldn't just throw herself into it!), but the prospect of leaving Irene alone with that....that...absurd man was quite possibly even worse!

And, absolutely oblivious to this consternation and only assuming that the poor adorable little blacksmith was just shy (and who could blame her, really, in a presence such as his?), Whisper could only laugh heartily.

"Well, yes," he allowed, in a sympathetic sort of purr as his hand met his puffed out chest while he posed for the dear ladies' benefit, "there were many people vying for Whisper's autograph this week, weren't there? But I'm afraid....and, oh, I do so hate to disappoint my fan, rare and unlikely an occurrence that that may be!, but I'm afraid I've run out of portraits to sign entirely!"

[begmetwice]

She would make this up to you so well, Amaya, promise. So many foods on sticks. So many books. So many shiny gold coins paid to an innkeeper to make sure no one took the rooms next to them.

"An excellent problem to have, really, Whisper," Irene noted, leaning into his name in an approximation of the man's speech patterns because she could not help herself, "and really, I shouldn't be surprised, I am late to the party."

She sighed dramatically, awash in her own misfortune, and maybe also covering for the fact that she was (weaker though she might have been) totally trying to angle things so that Amaya would have to face Whisper head-on if he wanted to keep talking to Irene, at least.

"But what a coincidence! What brings you to Port Bruce, Whisper?"

[whisper_can_do_it]

The only thing about Whisper that Amaya was willing to face was that Zephyr was firmly in that category of impossible, never going to happen, what was that Altenative Amaya even thinking? An anvil, surely, must have fallen on her head at some point.

Nothing, Adler! Nothing could make up for this!

(Or, well, she would definitely have to put a lot of effort into it).

"Ah, whell," said Whisper, and, yes, that extra H was very pronounced. "You see, after that unfortunate turn of events back in Daventry, I am headed back to my home in far-off Modesto, to shine up my armor and prepare myself for the next one. After app, there is certainly no rush to join King Edward's court; I am glad to give the underdog a chance every once in a while! No matter what tge year, Whhhhhisper can do it!"

[begmetwice]

The most effort! Plants would be gifted! Specialty meats ordered! Inabilities to walk the day after rendered

This was honestly sort of hilarious -- and based on her own experiences, and having had Hamish show up, Irene was absolutely glancing back and forth between Whisper and the cherished, beloved, forgiving woman beside her, and trying to picture that.

You know what? Whisper here was absolutely ridiculous, but he was undeniably bold. She could see it. She didn't want to dwell there and put up her feet and picture it for awhile, or anything, but she could see it.

"Hey, now there's the ticket," Irene said cheerily, actually sort of meaning the admiration in her voice sincerely. She, herself, was a much sorer loser! "There's always next year, isn't there? And surely Modesto needs you. Can't imagine how they're faring without you."

[special_rabbit]

"Poorly, no doubt!" Whisper answered, almost a little cheerfully himself. "Granted, knights are a dime a dozen back in Modesto, but no knight is quite so knightly as ~Whisper~!"

And when those speculative glances started passing between Whisper and Amaya, Amaya's eyes just narrowed in a glare, arms folded, lip curled into a snarl as she shook her head. She could only imagine what it was darting through Irene's brain at the moment, and she decided, quite firmly, that she wasn't going to stand for it, and went to take matters into her own hands.

By grabbing onto a Irene's arm and starting to walk away in the other direction. What? Like she was worried about insulting this guy? Apparently, by doing so, she might be doing herself a favor.

"Well, well, well," she said brusquely as she tried to pry themselves away from Whisper, "that's all very well and good, how lucky Modesto must be to have you back, lovely running into you, here's to hoping your boat doesn't spring a leak on your way over. Pity we can't stay and chat, we have a very busy day ahead of us!"

[begmetwice]

Irene actually made a little show of waving over her shoulder to Whisper as she allowed herself to be pried away -- though, as previously noted, Amaya could have probably fireman-carried her out of there if she'd wanted, with very little resistance given their strength differential. "Safe travels, new friend!"

Just to, you know, really stick the landing!

But once they had a little bit of distance from Whisper, she also knew that that groveling needed to start right now, and so -- "You're too hot for him, anyway."

They literally did not know what his face looked like, but still!